Miniature and portable electronic devices are among the fastest growing segments of the electronics industry. Among these devices are cellular phones operating with a ground cell network, satellite communication net terminals, laser and infrared measurement instruments, and work-stations including combinations of personal computers, facsimile machines with voice telecommunication terminals and notebook computers.
An important trend in the electronics industry has been the increasing utilization of integrated circuits as individual components due to their relatively inexpensive cost, miniature size, and electrical dependability. Today it is common for hundreds of complex integrated circuits to be treated as discrete components by the design engineer, with such integrated circuits being appropriately packaged and electrically connected to their associated printed circuit boards.
Many of the current electronic designs contain a variety of components such as, flexible, rigid, and semi-rigid printed circuit boards, hybrid circuits and large silicon integrated circuits. These components must be mounted together by electrical connectors having a plurality of terminal contacts which provide for inexpensive latching and containment of the electronic components.
Connectors having tuning fork type dual beam contact terminals wherein a gap is provided between the contact terminals are known for providing a mounting connection between an electronics package and a printed circuit board or the like. Leads of the electronics package are inserted into the gap for making contact with one or both of the contact terminals such that the electronics package is electrically interconnected with the printed circuit board. However, in order to manufacture these types of terminal having an extremely small gap size, the punching device which forms the gap from the terminal material during a stamping operation must also be extremely small. However, due to the forces exerted on the punching devices during a stamping operation, small punch devices are prone to breaking under the influence of such forces.
Therefore, there is a need for a low cost, high density connector having a plurality of terminal contacts which can be simply manufactured, allows for simple and effective regulation of insertion forces, has the strength necessary for providing a reliable connection between an electronic module or the like and a printed circuit board and which can be simply adjusted to provide a varying gap size between terminal contacts. The present invention provides an electrical connector which satisfies this need.